Any sinophiles in the blog? If so, you're going to love these free ChinesePod podcasts put out by a new language teaching company called Praxis. I know what you're thinking, it sounds like one of those made-up evil company names usually reserved for action movies starring Tom Cruise or Matt Damon: "There's a mole working for Praxis and we've got to figure out who, and quick!"

But trust me when I tell you that over 250,000 people around the world are tuning in regularly to get their fill of practical, high frequency Mandarin dialogs. A good chunk of those people are also paying for the premium service, which allows you to Skype chat with teachers.

Pretty cool to think that all you need is a broadband connection to bone up on your Chinese. And Praxis isn't content with just Chinese, they've also got a second service running now called SpanishSense and will soon expand into other languages, as well.

Meanwhile, the only thing I know how to say in Chinese is ni hao. If you know others, feel free to drop some other important phrases in the comments for the sino-curious.